The cost to reprint those ballots would be at least several thousand dollars, and about 9,000 people have already voted early in the March 6 primary.

"It's impossible; the ballots are printed, you know, it's loaded into the computer system," said Alex Triantafilou, chairman of Hamilton County's Republican Party. "We've had people voting already."

Remaining voters will likely see a posted notice about Bhati's death, but officials still haven't determined how to get his potential replacement's name before voters.

"One of the possible solutions we're looking at is to cover Dr. Bhati's name with his nominated replacement name on the Democratic Party ballot," said Sally Krisel, director of Hamilton County's board of elections.

But that could raise issues in correctly reading the ballots using electronic scanners, and so they may require hand counting.

A separate, single page might also be printed for Democratic primary voters, but that wouldn't help early voters.

"Some people, and I'm one of them, I voted early; I already voted for Dr. Bhati, (and) my vote will not be counted," Burke said.

Democrats will meet Thursday evening to select an acting coroner, who would also run in the November election.